It has been reported that radon inhalation activates antioxidative functions in liver and has an antioxidative effect against hepatopathy similar to that of the antioxidative effects of ascorbic acid (VC) or α-tocopherol (VE). In this study, we examined the combined effects of radon inhalation and antioxidant vitamin administration on acute alcohol-induced hepatopathy in mice. ICR mice were subjected to intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of alcohol after pretreating with air only (sham) or radon at a concentration of approximately 2000 Bq/m3 for 24 hours and i.p. administration of VC (300 mg/kg body weight) or VE (300 mg/kg body weight). In mice injected with alcohol, the combined radon and antioxidant vitamins treatment significantly decreased the activities of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase in serum compared to not only the alcohol-administered group (sham group), but also the radon inhalation with alcohol administration group or the vitamin and alcohol administration group. In addition, radon inhalation significantly increased the antioxidant level, in such as the catalase activity and the total glutathione content in liver compared to the sham group. These results suggested that the combined radon and antioxidant vitamin treatment could effectively inhibit alcohol-induced hepatopathy in mice without any antagonizing action.


Introduction An inadequate blood supply plays an important role in the development of injuries. It is known that physical activity has an influence on the blood flow of a tendon. However, it remains unclear which type of activity leads to the highest increase in blood flow. Therefore, the aim was to compare the immediate effect of 5 different physical activities (running, stretching, plyometrics, eccentric heel drops, T-test) on the blood flow of the Achilles tendon. Methods Thirty healthy subjects performed each of the 5 activities spread over a period of 3 weeks. Blood flow, saturation and haemoglobin were measured biateral before and after each activity. 12 well-defined tendon points were summarised into 4 regions: insertion, distal midportion, proximal midportion and musculotendinous junction. Changes were statistically analysed using a mixed model analysis. Results At the insertion, running is the only activity which has an immediate effect on the Achilles blood flow (p < 0.001). This significant increase in blood flow due to running is also found in the distal midportion (p < 0.001), the proximal midportion (p = 0.001) and the musculotendinous junction (p = 0.019). When compared to the other 4 physical activities, running differs significantly, especially at the insertional region and at the distal midportion. The P-values range from 0.000 to 0.016. In the proximal midportion, running also shows the highest increase and differs significantly from heel drops, stretching and T-test. At the musculotendon unit, only 2 significant P-values are seen; between running and stretching and between running and heel drops. The results of saturation mainly follow those of blood flow whereas the results of haemoglobin are unclear. Discussion The results demonstrate that running implicates the highest increase in blood flow of the Achilles tendon and this throughout the four regions of the Achilles tendon. The present results are in agreement with the observation of a decrease in blood flow after eccentric training and stretching (Knobloch et al., 2007). It is reasonable to assume that due to a tendon stretch the blood vessels within the tendon stretch and become thinner, which results in a slower flow. The higher increase due to running might be explained by the exercising time. The duration of tuck jumps and T-test may not have been sufficient to induce a vasodilation to increase tendon blood flow (Malliaras et al., 2012). In conclusion, if one wants to increase the blood flow of a tendon, it can be recommended to perform physical activities, in which the tendon is loaded cyclically. References Alfredson H, et al. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc, 2006;14:399–401 Boesen MI, et al. Am J Sports Med. 2006;34(12):2013–2021 Boesen MI, et al. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2006;16(6):463–469 Boesen AP, et al. Am J Sports Med. 2012;40(3):548–555 Fahlström M, et al. Br J Sports Med. 2010;44:140–143 Hirschmuller A, et al, Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(2):199–205 Kjaer M, et al., Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2000;10(6):326–331 Knobloch K, et al. Am J Sports Med. 2006;34(1):92–97 Knobloch K, et al. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2007;37(5):269–276 Kubo K, et al. Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2008;193(3):257–264 Langberg H, et al. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2001;84(3):246–248 Mahieu N, et al. Int J Sports Med. 2010;31(12):901–5 Malliaras P, et al, Am J Sports med. 2008;36(11):2210–2215 Malliaras P, et al. Int J Sports med. 2012;33:480–484 Öhberg L, et al. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2004;12(5):465–470 Reiter M, et al. Int J Sports Med. 2004;25(4):301–305 Van Snellenberg W, et al. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2007;17(5):530–534


We propose a typology of different meanings of cohabitation that combines cohabiters' intentions to marry with a general attitude toward marriage, using competing risk analyses to examine whether some cohabiters are more prone than others to marry or to separate. Using data (N = 1,258) from four waves of the German Family Panel (PAIRFAM) and a supplementary study (DEMODIFF), we compared eastern and western German cohabiters of the birth cohorts 1971–73 and 1981–83. Western Germans more frequently view cohabitation as a step in the marriage process, whereas eastern Germans more often cohabit as an alternative to marriage. Taking into account marital attitudes reveals that cohabiters without marriage plans differ from those with plans in their relationship careers, and also shows that cohabiters who plan to marry despite holding a less favourable view of marriage are less likely to realize their plans than cohabiters whose intentions and attitudes are more congruent.


Despite the availability of numerous technologies for detecting mutations, only a few have been formatted for automated mutation calling. Here, we evaluate the utility of the Transgenomic NavigatorTM software to facilitate automated detection of aberrant denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC) elution profiles. We used dHPLC to identify germline variants in MSH6, NEIL2, NEIL3, and OGG1 in 172 patients with multiple colorectal adenomas. 3,747 dHPLC profiles were analysed with the Navigator software using three levels of analysis, each differing in the degree of operator input. 43.5% (60/138) and 98.3% (59/60) of products with profiles distinct from wild type ('outliers') harboured novel variants under Level 1 and Levels 2/3 analysis conditions, respectively. We also assessed the utility of the software to rapidly detect samples carrying common polymorphisms by analysing regions of the genes that harbour polymorphisms with minor allele frequencies between 8 and 40%, therein analysing 2,784 profiles. We showed that 1573/1612 (97.6%) and 1137/1172 (97.0%) of PCR products were correctly classified as wild‐type and variant, respectively (Level 3 analysis conditions). Finally, we assessed the utility of the software to detect novel variants in fragments that also harboured common polymorphisms and showed that 59/61 (96.7%) of products with profiles outlying both the wild type and polymorphism groups harboured novel variants. We conclude that the Navigator software provides an excellent tool for rapid discrimination of aberrant dHPLC elution profiles that harbour sequence variants. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Western news media outlets have paid considerable attention to the civil war in Syria, but much of the coverage is simplistic and melodramatic. Too many accounts portray the conflict as a Manichean struggle between the evil, brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad and noble freedom fighters seeking to create a new, democratic Syria. The reality is far more complex and murky. Syria's turmoil has troubling, long-term implications not only for that country but for the Middle East as a whole, and even for the international system. The searing images of civilian casualties coming out of Syria have been hard to watch. Several thousand innocent people perished between the eruption of resistance to Assad's regime in March 2011 and the beginning of 2013, with no end in sight. There is little doubt that government forces were responsible for the majority of deaths. The prospect that Assad might be overthrown is understandably appealing to Westerners from a moral standpoint, but the West needs to be fully aware of the potential for unintended, and possibly quite unpleasant, consequences.


SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES SUMMARY Background. The genetic infl uence on dental arch morphology may be country-specifi c, thus it is reasonable to check the estimates of genetics across different populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the heredity of dental arch morphology in the sample of Lithuanian twins with accurate zygosity determination. Material and methods. The study sample consisted of digital dental models of 40 monozygotic (MZ) and 32 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. The estimates of heritability (h 2 ) for dental arch breadth and length were calculated. Results. All dental arch breadths and lengths were statistically signifi cantly larger in men than in women. Arch length differences between genders were less expressed than largest breadth differences. In the upper jaw the largest genetic effect was found on the arch breadth between lateral incisors. The heritability of dental arch length demonstrated similar differences between upper and lower jaw with mandible dental arch length being more genetically determined. Conclusions. The largest genetic impact was found on the upper dental arch breadth between lateral incisors. Similar, but lower heritability is inherent for canines and fi rst premolars of the upper jaw and fi rst premolars of the lower jaw. It also can be noted, that arch breadths between posterior teeth show lower heritability estimates than between anterior teeth on both jaws. The dental arch in the upper jaw has more expressed genetic component than in the lower jaw.


Improving the speed and performance of microprocessors requires aggressive leveraging of the interplay of microarchitecture and circuit design. We describe a unique, high-frequency dataflow macro for accelerating conditional-branch resolution by computing condition codes in parallel with computing the corresponding arithmetic results. This macro improves the microarchitecture by reducing conditional-branch latency while achieving high speed through a pulse-node, delayed-reset dynamic circuit implementation. The design has been realized in a 64-bit PowerPC integer processor that operates at 1.0 GHz (0.15 micron CMOS process).


Abstract Background and aims : In the most of the workplaces there are work-related stress, also workers complain of musculoskeletal disorders. It should be noted that these two factors effect on people's lives. The aim of this study was to determine the association between the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and occupational stress among a group of workers in the metal industry. Methods : This study was a descriptive - analytic research with a questionnaire survey. 361 workers were included in the study. Data were collected using Nordic questionnaire and DASS-21 software. Demographic characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, in other questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was performed using statistical software spss-20. Results : Results showed that 82.3% individuals had normal stress and 3.1% were with severe stress. Body posture, exercise, smoking and stress have significant relation with WMSDs. Conclusion : Increased job stress plays a role in the development of musculoskeletal disorders.There is a significant relation between body posture and WMSDs.


Abstract. An automated method for tunnel deformation monitoring using high density point clouds data is presented. Firstly, the 3D point clouds data are converted to two-dimensional surface by projection on the XOY plane, the projection point set of central axis on XOY plane named Uxoy is calculated by combining the Alpha Shape algorithm with RANSAC (Random Sampling Consistency) algorithm, and then the projection point set of central axis on YOZ plane named Uyoz is obtained by highest and lowest points which are extracted by intersecting straight lines that through each point of Uxoy and perpendicular to the two -dimensional surface with the tunnel point clouds, Uxoy and Uyoz together form the 3D center axis finally. Secondly, the buffer of each cross section is calculated by K-Nearest neighbor algorithm, and the initial cross-sectional point set is quickly constructed by projection method. Finally, the cross sections are denoised and the section lines are fitted using the method of iterative ellipse fitting. In order to improve the accuracy of the cross section, a fine adjustment method is proposed to rotate the initial sectional plane around the intercept point in the horizontal and vertical direction within the buffer. The proposed method is used in Shanghai subway tunnel, and the deformation of each section in the direction of 0 to 360 degrees is calculated. The result shows that the cross sections becomes flat circles from regular circles due to the great pressure at the top of the tunnel


In this paper, we propose the mathematical and finite element analysis of a second-order partial differential equation endowed with a generalized Robin boundary condition which involves the Laplace--Beltrami operator by introducing a function space $H^1(\Omega; \Gamma)$ of $H^1(\Omega)$-functions with $H^1(\Gamma)$-traces, where $\Gamma \subseteq \partial \Omega$. Based on a variational method, we prove that the solution of the generalized Robin boundary value problem possesses a better regularity property on the boundary than in the case of the standard Robin problem. We numerically solve generalized Robin problems by means of the finite element method with the aim of validating the theoretical rates of convergence of the error in the norms associated to the space $H^1(\Omega; \Gamma)$.


Many vision tasks are very complex and computationally intensive. Real time requirements further aggravate the situation. They usually involve both structured (low-level vision) and unstructured (high-level vision) computations. Parallel approaches ooer hope in this context. Parallel approaches to vision tasks and scheduling schemes for their implementation receive special emphasis in this paper. Architectural issues are also addressed. The aim is to design algorithms which can be implemented on low cost heterogeneous networks running PVM. Issues connected with general purpose architectures also receive attention. The proposed ideas have been illustrated through a practical example (of eye location from an image sequence). Next generation multimedia environments are expected to routinely employ such high performance computing platforms.


- Entrepreneurial ventures play as key pillars in the supply chain networks. Therefore, through the decision-making method, this study aims to prioritise entrepreneurial firms in the supply chain and to select the ones that perform properly in the network. In this regard, three main criteria are taken into account: Surrounding environmental, Entrepreneurial firm capabilities and Individual entrepreneurial capabilities and characteristics; including several sub-criteria for each. As for the methodology, a fuzzy Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is used to prioritise entrepreneurial firms, which considers the ideal solution with linguistic weights. As such, a sample of 141 Australian firms has been taken from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. Our findings confirm that the proposed method for prioritising the determinants entrepreneurial firms lead to designing a sustainable supply chain.


1. Endoneurial blood flow (EBF) in the sciatic nerve of rats aged 2‐12 weeks was studied using microelectrode H2 polarography. 2. EBF is highest in 2‐week‐old rats and progressively declines during development. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) is low at 2 weeks of age, gradually increases through the next 4 weeks, and is relatively constant thereafter. The decrease in EBF, in spite of an increase in MAP, occurs because the endoneurial vascular resistance is increasing faster than the MAP. 3. The higher EBF in younger rats is not due to the smaller diameter of their nerves. Sural and tibial nerves of 12‐week‐old rats, with diameters comparable to that of the sciatic nerve of a 3‐week‐old rat, have EBFs similar to that of the sciatic nerve of a 12‐week‐old rat. 4. There was no compelling evidence of autoregulation of EBF in 3‐week‐old rats over a MAP range from ‐40 to +30 mmHg of the normal value. 5. The increase of nerve vascular resistance with maturation is probably due to a decrease in capillary density and, to a lesser extent, to an increase in plasma viscosity and haematocrit. 6. The higher EBF in immature rats is likely to be a developmentally adaptive mechanism which permits greater blood‐nerve exchange of material to accommodate the greater metabolic needs of rapidly elongating and myelinating axons and proliferating Schwann cells.


Extended ultraviolet (XUV) discs have been found in a substantial fraction of late-type – S0, spiral and irregular – galaxies. Similarly, most late-type spirals have an extended gas disc, observable in the 21-cm radio line (H i). The morphology of galaxies can be quantified well using a series of scale-invariant parameters; concentration-asymmetry-smoothness (CAS), Gini, M20, and GM parameters. In this series of papers, we apply these to H i column density maps to identify mergers and interactions, lopsidedness and now XUV discs.

In this paper, we compare the quantified morphology and effective radius (R50) of the Westerbork observations of neutral Hydrogen in Irregular and SPiral galaxies Project (WHISP) H i maps to those of far- and near-ultraviolet images obtained with GALEX, to explore how close the morphology and scales of H i and UV in these discs correlate. We find that XUV discs do not stand out by their effective radii in UV or H i. However, the concentration index in far-ultraviolet (FUV) appears to select some XUV discs. And known XUV discs can be identified via a criterion using asymmetry and M20; 80 per cent of XUV discs are included but with 55 per cent contamination. This translates into 61 candidate XUV disc out of our 266 galaxies, 23 per cent consistent with previous findings. Otherwise, the UV and H i morphology parameters do not appear closely related.

Our motivation is to identify XUV discs and their origin. We consider three scenarios; tidal features from major mergers, the typical extended H i disc is a photo-dissociation product of the XUV regions and both H i and UV features originate in cold flows fueling the main galaxy.

We define extended H i and UV discs based on their concentration (CHI > 5 and CFUV > 4 respectively), but that these two subsamples never overlap in the WHISP sample. This appears to discount a simple photo-dissociation origin of the outer H i disc.

Previously, we identified the morphology space occupied by ongoing major mergers. Known XUV discs rarely reside in the merger-dominated part of H i morphology space but those that do are type 1. The exceptions, XUV discs in ongoing mergers, include the previously identified UGC 4862 and UGC 7081, 7651, and 7853. This suggests cold flows as the origin for the XUV complexes and their surrounding H i structures.


The feasibility of the removal of dye stuffs from textile effluents by electroadsorption has been investigated. An activated carbon–perlite mixture with a ratio of 8:1 for bipolarity has been used as the adsorbent. Conventional adsorption experiments have also been conducted for comparison. A bipolar trickle reactor has been used in the electroadsorption experiments. The model wastewater has been prepared by using acilan blau dye. Initial dye concentration, bed height between the electrodes, applied potential, flowrate, and the supporting electrolyte concentration have been examined as the parameters affecting the removal efficiency. A local textile plant effluent has been treated in the optimum values of these parameters obtained from the experimental studies. Adsorption kinetics and the amount of adsorbent required to reach the maximum removal efficiency have also been investigated and mass‐transfer coefficients have been calculated for adsorption and electroadsorption. The results showed that a removal efficiency of up to 100% can be achieved with energy consumption values of 1.58 kWh/m3 of wastewater treated. However, energy consumption decreases to 0.09 kWh/m3 if an exit dye concentration of 4.65 mg/L is accepted. It can be concluded from this work that this method combines all of the advantages of the activated‐carbon adsorption and electrolytic methods for the removal of dyes from wastewater.


The Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program, introduced in the 2008 Farm Bill, provides disaster aid payments to producers in counties eligible for disaster payments and individual producers with crop production losses that exceed 50% of their expected yields. We show that the program's "rules of the game" create moral hazard and adverse selection incentives. Then, we empirically analyze possible moral hazard and adverse selection behavior in response to the SURE program by corn, soybean, and wheat producers. Results suggest that recent increases in crop insurance participation may be due to increased moral hazard and adverse selection incentives.


This article explores the history of the archaeological category Sami circular offering sites, which refers to certain dry wall structures in Finnmark and Troms in northern Norway. In recent years the term has been used more frequently outside this geographical area too, at times to refer to structures vastly different from those originally labelled as circular offering sites. Such interpretations may be questioned, but perhaps it is the category itself that needs to be re-evaluated; a study ofthe research history suggests that the term is a result of a mid-19th century hypothesis that was established due to a lack of other plausible explanations rather than based on indicative finds or on local traditions. This interpretation has later been adopted by key researchers and has never really been challenged by any alternative hypothesis. This article proposes that the stone structures in question could represent other cultural phenomena, and that this needs further investigation.


The article highlights themes and paradoxes foundin the issue's articles about everyday academic"savoir-faire". One paradox concerns the oxymoroniccharacter of the topic: is academic savoirfaireto be seen as hands-on theory or as theoreticalsleights of hand? The second paradox depictsacademic life and routines as intensely individual,even narcissistic, and social and altruistic. A thirdparadox concerns the high prevalence – and evennecessity – of emotions in what are supposed to berational academic practices and environments.These paradoxes can be seen as containing an implicitmoral diagnosis of the current state of affairswithin Swedish academia.


The Festschrift is a collection of papers written in honour of Professor Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld to mark the occasion of her 70th birthday. Professor Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld is one of the leading authorities in the field of language contact, and has pursued research on the influence of English on Polish and other European languages, Polish-English contrastive studies, as well as various aspects of English grammar. She has authored more than 160 publications, including four books, as well as course books and academic papers. She has also edited and co-edited dictionaries of English borrowings in Polish. The Festschrift volume comprises papers from the world of linguistics which have been authored by eminent scholars from Poland and abroad. The chapters included in the volume focus on various issues, including those from the area of contact linguistics. The topics covered in the research papers comprise, for instance, the influence of English on different languages, such as Polish, Danish, Afrikaans, Swedish, Spanish, German and Japanese, as well as on Asian languages and cultures. The authors investigate Celtic borrowings in Polish, anglicisms in Serbian, or Yiddish borrowings in contemporary American English. The contributions also discuss the phenomenon of Ponglish, i.e., the communication code used by Poles living in the UK, the presence of foreign languages in the linguistic landscape of Kraków, as well as the problem of multilingualism in Europe, the relation between language, culture and identity, and the influence of globalisation on both Polish language and culture. Finally, selected chapters address a range of phenomena related to Karaim, Russenorsk, and Turkish.


The development of treatment planning methods in radiation therapy requires dose calculation methods that are both accurate and general enough to provide a dose per unit monitor setting for a broad variety of fields and beam modifiers. The purpose of this work was to develop models for calculation of scatter and transmission for photon beam attenuators such as compensating filters, wedges, and block trays. The attenuation of the beam is calculated using a spectrum of the beam, and a correction factor based on attenuation measurements. Small angle coherent scatter and electron binding effects on scattering cross sections are considered by use of a correction factor. Quality changes in beam penetrability and energy fluence to dose conversion are modeled by use of the calculated primary beam spectrum after passage through the attenuator. The beam spectra are derived by the depth dose effective method, i.e., by minimizing the difference between measured and calculated depth dose distributions, where the calculated distributions are derived by superposing data from a database for monoenergetic photons. The attenuator scatter is integrated over the area viewed from the calculation point of view using first scatter theory. Calculations are simplified by replacing the energy and angular-dependent cross-section formulas with the forward scatter constant r2(0) and a set of parametrized correction functions. The set of corrections include functions for the Compton energy loss, scatter attenuation, and secondary bremsstrahlung production. The effect of charged particle contamination is bypassed by avoiding use of dmax for absolute dose calibrations. The results of the model are compared with scatter measurements in air for copper and lead filters and with dose to a water phantom for lead filters for 4 and 18 MV. For attenuated beams, downstream of the buildup region, the calculated results agree with measurements on the 1.5% level. The accuracy was slightly less in situations where the scatter component is very large, as for very large fields with very short filter to detector distances. The implementation of the model into treatment planning systems is discussed.


We describe a new approach to absolute pose estimation from noisy and outlier contaminated matching point sets for RGB-D sensors. We show that by integrating multiple forms of correspondence based on 2-D and 3-D points and surface normals gives more precise, accurate and robust pose estimates. This is because it gives more constraints than using one form alone and increases the available measurements, especially when dealing with sparse matching sets. We demonstrate the approach by incorporating it within a RANSAC algorithm and introduce a novel direct least-square approach to calculate pose estimates. Results from experiments on synthetic and real data demonstrate improved performance over existing methods.


Background Non-adherence to therapy is one of the main obstacles achieving the goals of care in chronic autoimmune inflammatory diseases, including Rheumatic diseases (RMDs). In the " MOSAICO" study, ANMAR along with two other associations of Italian patients (AMICI chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and ANAP - psoriasis (PSO) and chronic dermatological diseases) wanted to compare the adherence to therapies for IBD, RMDs and PSO and identify key problems that can affect it positively or negatively. This paper presents the results related to adherence to treatment, the obstacles that are disadvantageous and to the factors that, conversely, favor adherence and persistence. Objectives to fix the degree of adherence to therapy - with DMARDs and biological indifferently - in the three different pathologies; to identify obstacles and factors predisposing good adherence and persistence by patients; to compare the three different populations, highlighting similarities and significant differences Methods a 72 questions questionnaire - about 50% of which were dedicated to adherence and persistence to therapy and the predisposing factors and impediments - prepared in collaboration with Doxapharma was administered to patients with RMDS, IBD, PSO via web and by volunteers of the three associations. The evaluation of adherence to therapy ("degree in which a person's behavior in taking medication, following a diet and/or change the lifestyle, corresponds to the specific recommendations made in agreement with the Medical") was assessed by Morisky Medication Adherence Scale - 8 items (MMAS-8) Results 1.017 patients - 233 with RMDs (AR e SA), 449 with IBD (Crohn and ulcerative colitis), 273 with PSO and 62 APs –answered to the questionnaire useful for the purpose of the study. Non-adherence varies in a range from 50% of dermatological patients, to 44% of them with IBDs, to 40% of patients with APs, to 36% of them with RMDs. Only 74.8% of adherent people is persistent (83% in biologic therapy; 76% in DMARDS) and non-persistent patients does not ask and/or inform their doctors. Patients with Psoriasis take therapies more discontinuously and inaccurately then all the others. Promote adherence: good support from doctors and health professionals satisfaciton with information received the best QOL easiness and lack of problems in taking drugs satisfaction with the therapy biologic therapies (even for the best QoL ensured) Promote discontinuity and non-adherence: dissatisfaction with the relationship with doctors and health professionals (33% ÷ 70% of patients is dissatisfied) Conclusions Our study shows that patients who enjoy a better health state, both physically and psychologically, are more likely to follow the treatment prescribed by their doctor, according to the mode and the specified time, especially if properly informed and well supported in choices, shared by medical and health professional staff. Disclosure of Interest None declared


In 2017 a first polyhedral embedding of the genus 7 Hurwitz surface of type {3, 7}18 was found by M. Cuntz and the author. For all previously determined polyhedral embeddings of regular maps, there exist those with non-trivial geometric symmetries as well. The orientation-preserving combinatorial automorphism group of this regular map of Hurwitz is the projective special linear group PSL(2, 8). For its subgroups, their possible corresponding geometric polyhedral embeddings have been investigated by G. Gevay and the author in this volume. There is an additional symmetry of order 2 that reverses the orientation. For this symmetry with eight fixed points, this paper provides a Kepler–Poinsot-type polyhedron which realizes this symmetry together with two additional symmetries of order 2. This polyhedron might serve as a starting point for proving that a geometric symmetry of order 2 for an embedding cannot exist.


Purpose: The molecular pathogenesis of uveal melanoma is poorly understood but is usually accompanied by amplification of chromosome 8q, suggesting the activation of one or more oncogenes. We recently identified a gene expression profile that distinguishes low-grade from high-grade melanomas. In this profile, a cluster of genes at chromosome 8q was overexpressed in high-grade tumors, providing an opportunity to search for potential oncogenes in this region. Experimental Design: Gene expression microarray analysis was done on 25 primary uveal melanomas. Microarray comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), quantitative PCR, and immunohistochemistry were done on a subset of these tumors. Cell motility was measured using a wound-healing assay. Results: In melanomas analyzed for microarray gene expression and CGH, gain of chromosome 8q correlated most strongly with expression of DDEF1, a gene located at 8q24. In contrast, the nearby MYC oncogene exhibited no significant change in expression. Confirming the microarray findings, DDEF1 mRNA levels and protein expression were significantly higher in high-grade melanomas. Furthermore, ectopic expression of DDEF1 in low-grade melanoma cells resulted in a significant increase in cell motility, a feature of high-grade metastasizing cells. Conclusions: These findings suggest that DDEF1 overexpression may be a pathogenetically relevant consequence of chromosome 8q amplification, which commonly occurs in high-grade uveal melanomas. We conclude that DDEF1 may act as an oncogene in this cancer, and it may be a useful diagnostic marker and therapeutic target.


Method and Materials:Eight packets of films were exposed to 13.5cm ×13.5cm, 6MV radiation fields in a solid water phantom. Dose levels of 1.1, 3.2, 5.3, 7.4, and 9.5 Gy were delivered to five films in each packet. Films were scanned both before and after irradiation using an Epson flat‐bed scanner (24hr wait‐time for post‐irradiation coloration). Corresponding 2D dose distributions were measured with a detector‐array (MatriXX). Point dose comparisons were performed with an ion chamber. Digitized film images were registered to the 2D dose distribution to generate a correction map that compensated the scanner non‐uniform response as a function of dose. Optical density (OD) and net optical density (NetOD) values were calculated for all images. Dose response curves were established using mean values of a central 0.5cm × 0.5cm region‐of‐interest (ROI). Images were converted to dose, and error uncertainties (1SD) were measured in the central 8cm × 8cm ROI. Results: The overall dosimetric uncertainties (1SD) of the NetOD approach were 2.2%, 1.9%, and 3.5% for red, green, and blue channels, respectively. The corresponding uncertainties of OD were 2.7%, 3.1%, and 8.3%, respectively. For low dose range (<3 Gy), the green channel revealed higher uncertainty (SDgreen= 3.3%) than the red channel (SDred=2.6%). However, for high doses (3∼9 Gy), the green channel showed less variability (SDgreen=1.6%, SDred=2.9%). Minimum SDred and SDgreen were 1.6% at 5.3Gy and 1.3% at 7.4 Gy, respectively. Scanner non‐uniformity correction mitigated the irregular response of scanner detector elements observed initially. Conclusion: NetOD may be a more useful metric for benchmarking EBT2 than OD. We demonstrated that the lowest dose uncertainties were achieved using the red channel for low dose range, while the green channel was preferred for higher doses. Scanner non‐uniformity correction is necessary for higher precision dosimetry.


The OLIVE project aims the development of a multilingual indexing tool for broadcast material based on speech recognition, which automatically produces indexes from the sound track of a program (television or radio). Such a tool allows multimedia archives to be searched by keywords and corresponding fragments to be retrieved. This paper gives a report on the alignment module, which is one of the components of the retrieval environment to be developed in OLIVE. It assigns time-codes to non-time-coded textual documents that are describing the content of the video. Timecoding of these textual documents will increase the overall level of disclosure. Basis for the assignment is some similarity measure between the non-timed-coded texts and subtitle files or the transcripts from speech recognition. The core of the alignment module is a generic algorithm for generating the links that are the basis for the insertion of time-codes into non-time-coded texts. An additional step combines similarity values with locality information. The data used during testing are closed-caption files of Dutch news-broadcasts and the autocue files of these broadcasts. Adaptations to the initial algorithm for which improved perfomance figures were found involved a threshold related to the sentencelength, and the applications of a high- and low-frequency term stoplist compiled from the time-coded text under consideration.


The k-means clustering method is a widely used clustering technique for the Web because of its simplicity and speed. However, the clustering result depends heavily on the chosen initial clustering centers, which are chosen uniformly at random from the data points. We propose a seeding method based on the independent component analysis for the k-means clustering method. We evaluate the performance of our proposed method and compare it with other seeding methods by using benchmark datasets. We applied our proposed method to a Web corpus, which is provided by ODP. The experiments show that the normalized mutual information of our proposed method is better than the normalized mutual information of k-means clustering method and k-means++ clustering method. Therefore, the proposed method is useful for Web corpus. Keywords-k-means; k-means++; independent component analysis; seeding;


In this paper we propose two analytically tractable stochastic-geometric models of interference in ad- hoc networks using pure (non-slotted) Aloha as the medium access. In contrast the slotted model, the interference in pure Aloha may vary during the transmission of a tagged packet. We develop closed form expressions for the Laplace transform of the empirical average of the interference experienced during the transmission of a typical packet. Both models assume a power-law path-loss function with arbitrarily distributed fading and feature configurations of transmitters randomly located in the Euclidean plane according to a Poisson point process. Depending on the model, these configurations vary over time or are static. We apply our analysis of the interference to study the Signal-to- Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR) outage probability for a typical transmission in pure Aloha. The results are used to compare the performance of non-slotted Aloha to the slotted one, which has almost exclusively been previously studied in the same context of mobile ad-hoc networks. Index Terms—Pure (non-slotted) Aloha, Slotted Aloha, SINR, Shot-Noise, MAC Layer Optimization, Throughput, Stochastic geometry, Poisson point process.


Objective: The soxhlet and cold extracts of Datura metel Linn. were evaluated for in vitro antirabies activity. Materials and Methods: Soxhlet and cold extraction method were used to extract Datura (fruit and seed) extracts. In vitro cytotoxicity assay was performed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Based on the CC50 range, the in vitro antirabies activity of the extracts was screened by rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test and molecular method. Results: The Datura (fruit and seed) extracts were not cytotoxic below 5 mg/ml (CC50). Titer of 10−4 rabies virus challenge virus standard (RV CVS) (1 50% tissue culture infective dose [1 TCID50]) was obtained by RFFT method and the challenge dose of 10 TCID50 was used for antirabies assay. Datura fruit and seed (soxhlet and cold) extracts showed 50% inhibition of RV CVS at 2.5 mg/ml and 1.25 mg/ml (inhibitory concentration 50% [IC50]), respectively. The tested extracts showed selectivity index (CC50/IC50) ranging from 2 to 4. The viral RNA was extracted and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed which also revealed a 2-fold reduction of viral load at 1.25 mg/ml of the Datura seed (soxhlet methanolic and cold aqueous) extracts. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of in vitro antiviral activity of D. metel Linn. against rabies virus. Datura seed extracts have a potential in vitro antirabies activity and, in future, can be further screened for in vivo activity against rabies virus in murine model.


Objective To treat patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNL) who failed oral prednisone therapy by using a round window membrane (RWM) microcatheter. This topical delivery strategy sought to improve effectiveness of steroid treatment to the inner ear by targeting drug delivery to the RWM. Study Design Nonrandomized prospective design. Setting Tertiary care facility. Patients Six patients with severe unilateral SSHL, five of whom were refractory to a course of oral steroid therapy treated within 6 weeks of SSHL and three additional patients treated more than 6 weeks after SSHL. Intervention Therapeutic use of RWM catheter. Main Outcome Measures Pure-tone averages (PTAs) and word identification scores (WIS). Results Five of the six patients treated within 6 weeks of SSHL improved their WIS. Of the six, four returned to baseline hearing, one recovered hearing that could benefit by hearing amplification, and one regained moderate improvement in PTA but not WIS. Conclusion Targeted topical steroid administration avoids the significant systemic side effects of oral steroids and may offer more effective dosing than simple transtympanic injection of medicine. Although these findings are preliminary, it is possible that after further study, targeted drug delivery may be a useful technique to consider in patients with severe to profound hearing loss that have failed all other management options.


In antitumor chemotherapy the combinations of drugs, dose and schedule are determined by the basic aims of the anticancer treatment. This also applies to the severity of side effects: their acceptability is different for different treatment aims. Where cancer chemotherapy is potentially curative, more side effects and transient reversible impairment of the quality of life must be accepted in comparison to tumor stages where treatment is purely palliative. The final aim of any palliative anticancer therapy must be to improve the quality of remaining life. An increased lifespan of poor quality is undesirable. These important criteria must be the guidelines in designing any palliative anticancer treatment. The criteria are different for different tumors, and within the same tumor for different risk groups. All these factors must be considered in selecting palliative chemotherapy. Examples of risk-adapted palliative chemotherapy are presented for three of the most frequent malignant tumors and their subgroups. For many tumors and their metastatic subgroups the criteria for optimal combinations of drugs, their dose, schedule and duration are being progressively refined. If this knowledge is applied properly in each case this should minimize the danger of unnecessary or even pointless impairment of life quality in the management of cancer patients.


Fatigue and recovery from fatigue were related to metabolism in single fibers of the frog semitendinosus muscle. The fibers were held at a sarcomere length of 2.3 microm in oxygenated Ringer solution at 15 degrees C and were stimulated for up to 150 s by a schedule of 10-s, 20- Hz tetanic trains that were interrupted by 1-s rest periods, after which they were rapidly frozen for biochemical analysis. Two kinds of fatigue were produced in relation to stimulus duration. A rapidly reversed fatigue occurred with stimulation for under 40 s and was evidenced by a decline in tetanic tension that could be overcome by 1 s of rest. A prolonged fatigue was caused by stimulation for 100-150 s. It was evidenced during stimulation by a fall in tetanic tension that could not be overcome by 1 s of rest, and after stimulation by a reduction, lasting for up to 82 min, in the peak tension of a 200-ms test tetanus. Fiber phosphocreatine (PCr) fell logarithmically in relation to stimulus duration, from a mean of 121 +/- 8 nmol/mg protein (SEM, n = 12) to 10% of this value after 150 s of stimulation. PCr returned to normal levels after 90-120 min of rest. Stimulation for 150 s did not significantly affect fiber glycogen and reduced fiber ATP by at most 15%. It is suggested that the prolonged fatigue caused by 100- 150 s of tetanic stimulation was caused by long-lasting failure of excitation-contraction coupling, as it was not accompanied by depletion of energy stores in the form of ATP. One possibility is that H+ accumulated in fatigued fibers so as to interfere with the action of Ca2+ in the coupling process.


Water plays a vital role in many aspects of sustaining life, including thermoregulation. Given that increasing temperatures and more extreme weather events due to climate change are predicted to influence water availability, understanding how species obtain and use water is critical. This is especially true for endangered species in small isolated populations which are vulnerable to drought and the risk of extinction. We examined the relationship between the frequency of water drinking and maximum temperature and rainfall in 21 groups of wild gorillas from the two mountain gorilla populations (Bwindi and Virunga), between 2010 and 2020. In both populations, we found that the frequency of water drinking significantly increased at higher maximum temperatures than cooler ones, but we found no consistent relationship between water drinking and rainfall. We also found that Virunga gorillas relied more on foods with higher water content than Bwindi gorillas, which in part likely explains why they drink water much less frequently. These findings highlight that even in rainforest mammals that gain most of their water requirements from food, access to free-standing water may be important because it likely facilitates evaporative cooling in response to thermoregulatory stress. These results have important implications for conservation and behavior of mountain gorillas in the face of continued increases in temperature and frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change.


For the ultrasound images accurate segmentation problem, this paper proposes a novel SVM semi-supervised segmentation method based on major features in curvelet domain. Firstly, ultrasound images were decomposed into different directions and frequen- cies in the curvelet domain, then the cauchy model was used to simulate curvelet coefficients distribution, thus the main distribution of the curvelet coefficients were extracted to reduce the algorithm time complexity; Secondly after curvelet inverse transform we designed texture analysis method to distinguish texture intensity of every blocks among each sub-bands, then elected maximum K numbers energy sub-bands accroding to the strong texture characteristic, followly extracted features such as: angular second moment, contrast, correlation, entropy, variance, mean, adverse moments, etc from these maximum energy sub-bands, thereby calculating data amount was reduced and algorithm real-time performance was improved; Finally we designed semi-supervised SVM classifier and took the ex- pert manual tagging map as reference standards, compared with the results of moment method and active contour model, experimental data show that our algorithm for ultrasound images pathological region segmentation has better accuracy and effectiveness.


The present study investigated the relationship between explicit and implicit measures of affiliation, power, and achievement motives and behavior as related to social networking sites (SNS) in a sample of 40 participants. SNS appear to be designed to enable social connection via the Internet, so the potential for influence of the affiliation motive seemed selfevident. Additionally, we hypothesized that the power motive drives certain aspects of SNS behavior such that individuals with a high power motive have a larger number of friends and upload more pictures. The results of regression analyses showed that the explicit affiliation motive and the explicit power motive were related to different outcome of SNS activity. Specifically, the explicit power motive predicted number of friends and number of uploaded pictures, whereas time spent on SNS per day was predicted by the explicit affiliation motive. Only weak evidence was found for an influence of implicit motives on SNS activity.


Cold hardiness in 20 insect species living in extremely cold climate of Yakutia has been investigated for the first time. It was shown that the Yakutian insects prefer to use the strategy of freeze tolerance according to which they produce special substances initiating the freezing of hemolymph at high subzero temperatures. The presence of ice-nucleating agents in the haemolymph of insects belonging to the phylogenetic group of Lepidopteran was shown. We postulate that Pieris rapae may shift between the different cold hardiness strategies when they move from moderately cold regions to a more severe environment.


There are usually plenty of material inventories in a construction site. More inventories can meet unexpected demands, and also they may have an economical advantage by avoiding a probable escalation of raw material costs. On the other hand, these inventories also cause negative aspects to increase costs for storing redundant inventory as well as decreasing construction productivity. Therefore, a proper method of deciding an optimal level of material inventories while considering dynamic variations of resources under uncertainty is very crucial for the economical efficiency of construction projects. This research presents a stochastic modelling method for construction operations, particularly targeting a work process involving on-site fabrication of raw materials like iron-rebar process (delivery, cut and assembly, and placement). To develop the model, we apply the concept of factory physics to depict the overall components of a system. Then, an optimal inventory management model is devised to support purchase decisions where users can make timely actions on how much to order and when to buy raw materials. Also, optimal time lag, which minimizes the storage time for pre-assembled materials, is obtained. To verify this method, a real case is applied to elicit an optimal amount of inventory and time lag. It is found that average values as well as variability of inventory level decreased significantly so as to minimize economic costs related to inventory management under uncertain project condition.


Rain removal is important for improving the robustness of outdoor vision based systems. Current rain removal methods show limitations either for complex dynamic scenes shot from fast moving cameras, or under torrential rain fall with opaque occlusions. We propose a novel derain algorithm, which applies superpixel (SP) segmentation to decompose the scene into depth consistent units. Alignment of scene contents are done at the SP level, which proves to be robust towards rain occlusion and fast camera motion. Two alignment output tensors, i.e., optimal temporal match tensor and sorted spatial-temporal match tensor, provide informative clues for rain streak location and occluded background contents to generate an intermediate derain output. These tensors will be subsequently prepared as input features for a convolutional neural network to restore high frequency details to the intermediate output for compensation of mis-alignment blur. Extensive evaluations show that up to 5dB reconstruction PSNR advantage is achieved over state-of-the-art methods. Visual inspection shows that much cleaner rain removal is achieved especially for highly dynamic scenes with heavy and opaque rainfall from a fast moving camera.


The long-running controversy over the origin of the Capitan Formation massive limestone member concerns differing interpretations of the relative importance of its organic vs. inorganic components and whether the organic components were capable of building a rigid reef framework. Answers to the latter question begin with determining the life habit, growth form, and skeletal size and strength of the organisms with greatest reef-building potential and whether they are preserved in life position. Alternatively, the skeletons may be toppled and broken and their fragments deposited as transported debris in shelf margins and/or downslope locations.

Capitan Formation sponges have the greatest reef-building potential because they exceed all other taxa in diversity, especially those with erect growth. In addition, their skeletons are the largest and most rigid, abundant, and widely distributed. On horizontal polished surfaces of 45 randomly distributed quadrats (areas = 200–400 cm2) from two localities (areas = 450 m2 and 5400 m2) near the northeast end of the Capitan outcrop belt, 74% of the sponges are preserved in their erect life positions and 26% are toppled fragments (n = 672). Most sponges are small; fragments of those with the weakest skeletons are randomly arranged, not current aligned. Successive generations of erect sponges built the initial accretionary reef framework. Many sponges were subsequently supported in life position by very weakly skeletonized encrusters and/or syndepositional cement.


We present optical I -band light curves of the gravitationally lensed double QSO B1600+434 from observations obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) between April 1998 and November 1999. The photometry has been performed by simultaneous deconvolution of all the data frames, involving a numerical lens galaxy model. Four methods have been applied to determine the time delay between the two QSO components, giving a mean estimate of ∆ t = 51 ± 4 days (95% confidence level). This is the fourth optical time delay ever measured. Adopting a Ω = 0 . 3, Λ = 0 Universe and using the mass model of Maller et al. (2000), this time-delay estimate yields a Hubble parameter of H 0 = 52 +14 − 8 km s − 1 Mpc − 1 (95% confidence level) where the errors include time-delay as well as model uncertainties. There are time-dependent offsets between the two (appropriately shifted) light curves that indicate the presence of external variations due to microlensing. independently to the separate bins. For each bin and time delay value, an additional constant or linear offset is determined to improve the fit. Finally, new time delay values are determined on these modified curves. The time delays determined in this way turn out to show very little sensitivity to the input values used, and to the different splitting of the curves. The results converge towards a mean value of 51 days with a standard deviation (1 σ ) of 2 days and magnitude offsets varying from 0.6 – 0.87 mag in the different bins.


Numerous studies have highlighted the diversity of fish inner ear morphology. However, the function of the shape, size and orientation of the different structures remains poorly understood. The saccule (otolithic endorgan) is considered to be the principal hearing organ in fishes and it has been hypothesized that sagitta (saccular otolith) shape and size affect hearing capacities: large sagittae are thought to increase sensitivity. The sagittae of many ophidiids and carapids occupy a large volume inside the neurocranium. Hence they are a good structure with which to test the size hypothesis. The main aim of this study was to investigate hearing capacities and inner ear morphology in two ophidiiform species: Ophidion rochei and Carapus acus. We used a multidisciplinary approach that combines dissections, μCT-scan examinations and auditory evoked potential techniques. Carapus acus and O. rochei sagittae have similar maximal diameters; both species have larger otoliths than many non-ophidiiform species, especially compared with the intra-neurocranium volume. Both species are sensitive to sounds up to 2100 Hz. Relative to the skull, O. rochei has smaller sagittae than the carapid, but better hearing capacities from 300 to 900 Hz and similar sensitivities at 150 Hz and from 1200 to 2100 Hz. Results show that hearing capacities of a fish species cannot be predicted only based on sagitta size. Larger otoliths (in size relative to the skull) may have evolved mainly for performing vestibular functions in fishes, especially those species that need to execute precise and complex movements.


The topical anesthetic solution TAC (tetracaine, adrenaline, cocaine) has gained widespread acceptance as the preferred local anesthetic for repairing skin lacerations in children. Despite this popularity, there are no universally accepted guidelines for its application. We report the case of a 6-month-old infant who had respiratory distress and seizures after TAC administration. In addition, we surveyed emergency departments within the state of Virginia regarding their guidelines for TAC application in children. Of the 91 hospitals surveyed, 32 (35%) currently administer TAC, and 14 (44%) of these have no guidelines regarding its use. Among the 20 (63%) with restrictions, there is wide variability in the way it is prescribed. TAC solution is a highly potent anesthetic agent with significant toxicity potential. Research into appropriate dosages, absorption, and actions needs to be undertaken before its widespread acceptance as the drug of choice for providing local anesthesia in children.


Modern hydraulic systems are operating at higher pressures and higher temperatures than ever before. In addition, the life and reliability of the hydraulic components and hence the hydraulic system is becoming more and more dependent upon the characteristics of the circulating fluid in the system. The hydraulic component which normally suffers most when the correct fluid is not used in the system is the hydraulic pump. Three different types of hydraulic pumps are widely used in hydraulic systems. Vane pumps have been the dominant type of pump for hydraulic systems. Gear pumps have replaced vane pumps in many applications. Piston pumps are rapidly gaining popularity. Therefore, the pump manufacturers are conducting tests to qualify fluids for use with their pumps and the fluids formulators are conducting tests to show that their formulations are compatible with hydraulic components. Unfortunately, the tests most widely used are either no industry standards or do not address problems encountered with some hydraulic pumps. This paper presents an overview of the pump tests which are currently available or which are specific to certain hydraulic pumps. Since there are few standard pump tests, many companies have devised their own tests to be confident of the fluids whichmore » they qualify. Additional concepts in pump testing are proposed and discussed.« less


The Mendelian inheritance is based on the fundamental rule in which mammalian genes are expressed equally from two homologous biparental alleles. Recently a small number of genes have been identified to show an exception to this rule in that homologous alleles can function differently in somatic cells depending on whether they come from the mother or the father. This intriguing biological phenomenon is called as genomic imprinting which does not conform classical Mendelian inheritance and has potentially far reaching implications for genetics, evolution, developmental biology and pathology including cancer. The gene encoding insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) harbors at 11p15.5 and serves as paradigm for an imprinted gene. The IGF2 gene has been demonstrated to be imprinted with the paternal allele expressed and the maternal being silent which is evolutionally conserved between mice and human. Loss of imprinting (LOI) of IGF2 has been demonstrated in a dozen of tumor types including Wilms tumor (WT) with a promise of many more to come. The LOI of IGF2 may induce increased or deregulated IGF2 expression which could initiate the onset of WT. Thus the LOI of IGF2 may provide a novel mechanism of gene activation and play a role in the development of a wide range of tumors. This review also discusses other imprinted genes on 11p15 which may have a role in WT or other diseases. Finally molecular mechanisms of genomic imprinting are discussed.


This work explores how model-driven engineering techniques can support the configuration of systems in domains presenting multiple variability factors. Video surveillance is a good candidate for which we have an extensive experience. Ultimately, we wish to automatically generate a software component assembly from an application specification, using model to model transformations. The challenge is to cope with variability both at the specification and at the implementation levels. Our approach advocates a clear separation of concerns. More precisely, we propose two feature models, one for task specification and the other for software components. The first model can be transformed into one or several valid component configurations through step-wise specialization. This paper outlines our approach, focusing on the two feature models and their relations. We particularly insist on variability and constraint modeling in order to achieve the mapping from domain variability to software variability through model transformations.


While substantial fertility decline has started to take place in other countries of the south Asian region Pakistan has shown only a slight decline in the prevailing high fertility rates. Several demographers, economists and sociologists have emphasised the role of demand for children as an important source of change in the reproductive behaviour of individuals [Bulatao (1981); Pullum (1983); Bulatao and Lee (1983); Pritchett (1994)]. With regard to Pakistan many social scientists believe that demand for children is still high which is keeping the fertility levels high, that is couples prefer to have more children. It is thus imperative to have an insight into the fertility preferences maintained by the people which are considered to have an important bearing on the fertility outcomes and contraceptive use behaviour.


Ciampitti will talk about the use of social media by the Department of Agronomy and Cropping Systems group at K–State University to provide unbiased and science-based agricultural information. The information shared via social media quickly reaches the target audience, providing timely educational and outreach contents. The most successful examples have been infographics, timely pictures of production issues, presentations and papers uploaded, and information on the use of new technologies.


Wireless networks are very popular due to its peak nowadays, because the users need wireless connectivity regardless of their geographic position. There's an increasing threat of attacks on the Wireless sensor Network (WSN). Node replication attack is one in all the security threat within which the traffic is redirected to such a node that really doesn't exist within the network. It's an analogy to the Replication within the universe within which things disappear. The node presents itself in such some way to the node that it will attack different nodes and networks knowing that it's the shortest path. WSNs should have a secure approach for transmission and communication that is kind of difficult and very important issue. so as to produce secure communication and transmission, research worker worked specifically on the security problems in WSNs, and lots of secure routing protocols and security measures inside the networks were proposed. The scope of this work is to review the effects of Replication attack in WSN exploitation (and prevention this attack exploitation security primarily based modified. Comparative analysis of Replication attack for each protocol is taken under consideration. The impact of Node Replication attack on the performance of WSN is evaluated searching for that protocol is additional vulnerable to the attack and the way abundant is that the impact of the attack on each protocols. The measurements were taken within the light of packet delivery ratio, throughput, end-to-end delay and residual energy. Simulation is completed in Network simulator tool two (NS-2).


Significant local temperature rises often accompany the high rate deformation of polymer matrix composites. In the case of impact loading, heat is generated locally within the polymer matrix due to plastic dissipation, but the rapid nature of the loading precludes significant heat transfer from occurring; ballistic impact loading can therefore be regarded as fully adiabatic. In this paper, the development of a synergistic multiscale approach to simulate the architecturally dependent impact response of polymer matrix composites with complex fiber tow architectures is presented and applied to a representative triaxially braided composite material system. To approximate the heterogeneity of the composite braid architecture at the highest analysis length scale, a subcell-based approach is utilized whereby the mesoscale repeating unit cell of the material is discretized in-plane into an assemblage of laminated composite subcell regions, with stacking sequences determined from the braid architecture. Each unidirectional layer of the laminated composite subcells are modeled with the generalized method of cells micromechanics theory, where a nonisothermal viscoplastic constitutive model is employed to model the rate, temperature, and pressure dependent polymer matrix. Matrix temperature rises due to inelastic deformation are computed. in matrix elastic properties are determined from neat resin dynamic mechanical analysis data. The commercial transient dynamic finite element code LS-DYNA is utilized to conduct simulations of quasi-static coupon tests and flat panel impact tests performed on a T700/PR520 [0°/60°/–60°] triaxially braided composite. Good agreement is found between simulations and experiments. It is expected that, once progressive damage and failure are incorporated into the multiscale scheme, the incorporation of adiabatic heating affects will greatly improve the predictive capability of current models.


ABSTRACT

Aisyah Ni'mah. 2017. "Fukushima Akira's Ego Defense Mechanisms in Dare mo Shiranai Movie (Psychoanalysis)". Thesis, Department of Japanese, Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University, Semarang. The Advisor, Yuliani Rahmah, S.Pd., M. Hum.

This research is about the psychology of the main character in Dare mo Shiranai Movie. The movie was published on 2004. The object of this research is Fukushima Akira as the main character.

People in their lives would encounter conflicts, and everyone has a way to resolve it. The purpose of this research is to reveal the conflicts and the ego defense mechanisms of Fukushima Akira in Dare mo Shiranai movie. The method of data collection is library research. The theory that used in this research was psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud.

This research finds that Fukushima Akira as the main character has many conflicts that creates an anxiety problems. Fukushima Akira showes the ego defense mechanisms of repression, displacement, reaction formation, regression, aggression, and aphaty to cover his anxiety.

Keywords: Ego defense mechanism, Dare mo Shiranai, psychoanalysis, Fukushima Akira


(mean 17 months, range four months to three years, and only two who relapsed within the first year). We adopted different criteria from Murphy et al to assess the rate of relapse: in their study recurrence of symptoms was considered to be a relapse. In five of our patients symptoms recurred but endoscopy failed to show any ulcer and none had symptoms of relapse at endoscopy. No differences were found between those who relapsed and those who did not in family history, duration of symptoms, or gastric acidity.


DNA topology changes dynamically during DNA replication. Supercoiling, precatenation, catenation and knotting interplay throughout the process that is finely regulated by DNA topoisomerases. In the present article, we provide an overview of theoretical and experimental approaches to understand the interplay between various manifestations of topological constraints acting on replicating DNA molecules. Data discussed reveal that DNA entanglements (supercoils and catenanes) play an active role in preventing the formation of deleterious knots.


Objective: The study aimed to assess the relationship between nightly sleep duration and obesity in young adult Saudi citizens. Methods: A cross-sectional study in which eighty-one healthy young adults were enrolled. Self-reported sleep duration per night was recorded from each participant. Sleep hours were categorized into three groups: normal (7-8 h), short (≤ 6 h), and long (>8 h). Weight, height, and waist circumference were measured for all participants. Body mass index was computed and WHO guidelines was used to estimate obesity. Venous blood samples were collected at fasting and 2-h after breakfast. Blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin were assayed by standard laboratory procedures. SPSS was used to analyze data. Results: 69.6% of overweight/obese subjects reported sleeping less than 6 hours per night while 37.1% of normal weight subject did (p=0.008). 66.7% of all participants spent over three hours per day in front of screen i.e. spent watching TV, using computer, playing video games. Data analysis revealed an inverse significant correlation between duration of sleep per night and body mass index (r=-0.246, p=0.027). Conclusion: Our findings collectively highlight the importance of having an adequate amount of sleep per night (7-8 hours) which could help in minimizing the epidemic of obesity and its associated co-morbidities. We should encourage young adults to create a positive behavioral change and improve their lifestyle choices by changing their delay in the timing of sleep onset.


SIR,-With reference to the letter (10 February, p 414) by Drs R W Nutton and M J Guy, it is not stated what kind of dislocations occurred. The common injury is the posterior one, which is usually no trouble; it is the anterior dislocation that is liable to cause rupture of the middle slip of the extensor tendon. This is not generally realised and is not in many of the textbooks. X-rays are not always taken after this injury, reduction being done on the spot; so it may not be known what type of dislocation occurred. So if after this injury a patient cannot fully extend the proximal interphalangeal joint, then he should be treated at once in a lively splint to prevent the Boutonnier deformity, which is a disabling and difficult condition to treat once it has developed.


We present a modeling and optimization approach for the planning of primary healthcare services in order to efficiently direct patient admissions to general practitioners (GP) and to leverage the capacity of the healthcare system. We propose a multi-period multi-criteria districting model for the problem of designing GP districts in the presence of six criteria: workload balance, capacity, accessibility, compactness, income equity and district similarity. We combine the last three criteria into a single objective function and formulate the problem as a mixed integer program with binary location decision variables and relaxed allocation decision variables for gradual assignments. To assess the usefulness of the model, we test it on real-case scenarios of Istanbul, Turkey.


The problem at the heart of this research is the lack of objective information about what actually causes the property fires commonly seen on the television and experienced vicariously. Most people are unlikely to suffer a fire and are unable to imagine the consequences of a fire in their home, in their village hall or at their place of work. This means that an average manager in a company or organisation is ill-equipped to formulate and manage a fire safety plan tailored to that company or organisation. Those that do are hampered because there are no obvious ways of measuring the standard of management needed to manage the plan successfully. Most people are left to their own devices to decide how an ignition occurs, how quickly a fire can consume a property, what contingencies should have been considered and so on. This study investigates the relationship between fire damage and fire safety management and hypothesises that most fire damage is the result of inadequate or unsuccessful fire safety management.
A triangulation approach has been taken to the methodology utilised in this research using two qualitative methods and one quantitative method. It offers three sets of results:
 The first set is an authoritative categorisation of the components of fire safety management consisting of a brief and concise description of each component rated in order of importance. The categorisation fills a gap for a comprehensive definition and aspires to become the accepted definition validated by objective evidence.

 The second set of results are the opinions and priorities of those with most influence on the practice and enforcement of fire safety on a university campus. Diverse opinions and viewpoints between the practice and enforcement of fire safety are highlighted and indicate a need for a greater understanding of each other's roles.

 The third set is the analysis of two sets of fire incident data comparing fire damage occurring on a university campus against the fire damage occurring throughout the area administered by one fire and rescue service. Frequencies of fire damage occurring at different times of day, month and year are emphasised and compared. The cost of fire damage on a university campus is postulated. The model of analysis is one that could be developed into a predictive management planning tool.
This research signals that the management of fire safety is important and its importance lies in reducing the amount of damage and impact which is the consequence of fire. It contributes to that aim and opens the way to further research that could turn the subjective subject of fire safety management into an objective science.


User Experience (UX) is an emerging research area pertaining to as well as extending beyond the traditional usability. Issues in the realm of usability may be amplified in UX because of its larger scope. Four key non-orthogonal issues are: definition, modeling, method selection, and interplay between evaluation and development. Leveraging the legacy of a series of earlier workshops, I-UxSED 2012 aims to develop a deeper understanding of how evaluation feedback shapes software development, especially when experiential qualities such as fun, trust, aesthetic values are concerned. Is feedback on these fuzzy qualities less useful for problem prioritization or less persuasive for problem fixing? This and other challenging questions will be explored in I-UxSED 2012 that brings together researchers and practitioners from two communities - HCI and Software Engineering.


The hetero-Diels-Alder reactions of 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadiene with ethylene, methyl vinyl ether, and methyl acrylate have been investigated theoretically with the aid of density functional theory using the Becke3LYP/6-31G(d) computational level. In the reactions with substituted alkenes, the transition states are concerted but asynchronous; the shortest bond-forming distance involves the nonsubstituted carbon of the alkene. In agreement with the experimental results, the reaction with methyl vinyl ether proceeds with high endo stereoselectivity and with complete regioselectivity to form the 6-methoxy cycloadduct. The conformational study of the transition states shows a sharp s-trans preference. In contrast, the [4 + 2]-cycloaddition of 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadiene with methyl acrylate have been found to occur with low regio- and stereoselectivity but with a s-cis preference in the transition structures.


Conversational software provides a continuous dialogue between the explorationist and the computer. Interactive procedures of this type create an environment in which storage, retrieval, manipulation, reporting, and mapping of information are integrated into one system. Automation of an exploration office provides increased speed, accuracy, and flexibility to the exploration effort. With present technology, noncomputer-orientated employees can easily access existing data files with computer programs, which produce a variety of information. From the creation of detailed base maps to interpretative geological mapping, interactive software has proven its usefulness. A rapid preliminary evaluation of an area will be performed using interactive information systems. A hypothetical geologic setting in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, serves as the setting for this reconnaissance study. All available information will be retrieved, manipulated, and displayed using conversational software. Base maps and reports created from existing well, seismic, velocity, and cartographic computer files comprise the initial information. Existing well marker depths and seismic times will aid in a more accurate interpretation of the geology. As the interpretation evolves, information is periodically updated and mapped to further develop the study. Computer-generated contour maps provide a rapid and reliable evaluation of the subsurface geology.


Phosphorus (P) in plants is taken from soil as an inorganic phosphate (Pi) and is one of the most important macroelements in growth and development. Plants actively react to Pi starvation by the induced expression of Pi transporters, MIR399, MIR827, and miR399 molecular sponge – IPS1 genes and by the decreased expression of the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2 (PHOSPHATE2 – PHO2) and Pi sensing and transport SPX-MFS genes. The PHO2 protein is involved in the degradation of Pi transporters PHT1;1 (from soil to roots) and PHO1 (from roots to shoots). The decreased expression of PHO2 leads to Pi accumulation in shoots. In contrast, the pho1 mutant shows a decreased level of Pi concentration in shoots. Finally, Pi starvation leads to decreased Pi concentration in all plant tissues. Little is known about plant Pi homeostasis in other abiotic stress conditions. We found that, during the first hour of heat stress, Pi accumulated in barley shoots but not in the roots, and transcriptomic data analysis as well as RT-qPCR led us to propose an explanation for this phenomenon. Pi transport inhibition from soil to roots is balanced by lower Pi efflux from roots to shoots directed by the PHO1 transporter. In shoots, the PHO2 mRNA level is decreased, leading to an increased Pi level. We concluded that Pi homeostasis in barley during heat stress is maintained by dynamic changes in Pi-related genes expression.


In order to meet the demand of social development, improve the speed and comfort during elevator running process, the elevator speed control system is studied in this article. One new elevator speed control method is put forward. The implementing process of the new method and the design of elevator speed curve are elaborated in detail. The new control method has good utility in improving the running efficiency and the riding comfort for the elevator.


The practice of abortion claims more women lives every day, for being considered as a crime in our state, women practice it in unhealthy places or taking medicines that in some cases they cause death. Objective: Describe the knowledge on abortion decriminalizing in nursing students n°1 of Chilpancingo,Guerrero 2015. Methodology: The study population consisted of 179 randomly selected students and the type of sampling was stratified, a scale was constructed to assess the students' knowledge on abortion decriminalizing, the indicators good, regular and bad, subsequently it was analyzed through Chi squarethe association of the variables. Results: 65.9 % of students have a bad knowledge, while only 29.6 % regular and 4.5% have a good knowledge, respect to the knowledge on abortion decriminalizing the 98.9% of the students have a bad knowledge, to investigate the relation between knowledge and sociodemographic variables, were found that the semester and knowing the methods to abort are related to the knowledge about abortion using a significance level of 5%. Conclusion: knowledge about abortion and decriminalization in students who participated in the research is bad, regarding the decriminalization of abortion, more than a third of the study population is unknown and also against the law decriminalizing abortion.


Urban areas have been growing radically worldwide, causing considerable changes in biodiversity of natural habitats. In floodplain forests, we studied the effects of urbanization on ground-dwelling spider assemblages along a rural-suburban—urban gradient in Hungary. We tested three traditional hypotheses (intermediate disturbance hypothesis, habitat specialist hypothesis and hygrophilous species hypothesis) and two novel expectations (shade-preferring species hypothesis, and disturbance sensitive species hypothesis) on spiders. We found that the total number of species was higher in the suburban habitat than in rural and urban ones, supporting the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. We found a decrease in the species richness of forest specialist and shade-preferring species along the urbanization gradient. We found that the number of hygrophilous and disturbance sensitive species was the lowest in the urban habitat. The spider assemblages of the rural and suburban habitats were clearly separated from the assemblages of urban habitats. Based on our findings we emphasize that low and moderate intensity of forest management contributes to the preservation of the local species richness in floodplain forests.


Chen X., Yang M., Sun Z., Liu W., Sun T., Meng H., Zhang H. (2009): Molecular cloning and characterisation of alpha subunit of H + -ATPase in Lactobacillus casei Zhang. Czech J. Food Sci., 27: 49-54. Lactic acid bacteria as potential probiotics . H + -ATPase is considered a key gene in several bacteria with the ability of acid tolerance . We cloned and sequenced the full length cDNA of alpha subunit of H + -ATPase gene in Lactobacillus casei Zhang, which had been isolated from traditional home-made koumiss in Inner Mongolia of China. The results showed that the respective cDNA sequence is composed of 1530 nucleotides and codes a putative protein including 509 amino acids. In addition, we also reconstructed the phylogenic trees for H + -ATPase gene based on amino acids sequences of diverse strains of Lactic acid bacteria.


The authors assessed by means of questionnaires the activities of radiopharmaceuticals administered in departments of nuclear medicine in Czechoslovakia. The mean activities of individual radiopharmaceuticals are roughly equal as in Great Britain but lower than in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The differences of activities used in different departments are approximately equal in all compared countries. In the Czech Republic the annual collective effective dose equivalent from nuclear medicine was 433 Sv in 1983 and 609 Sv in 1987. The mean effective dose equivalent per examination was 2.23 mSv in 1983 and 2.44 mSv in 1987. The mean effective dose equivalent per inhabitant of the Czech Republic was 0.042 mSv in 1983 and 0.059 mSv in 1987. The radiation dose of the Czech population from nuclear medicine amounts approximately to one tenth of the load from radiodiagnostics.


The Himalaya consists of thrust sheets tectonically shingled together since ~58 Ma as India collided with and slid beneath Asia. Major Himalayan structures, including the South Tibetan Detachment (STD), Main Central Thrust (MCT), Lesser Himalayan Duplex (LHD), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), and Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), persist along strike from northwestern India to Arunachal Pradesh near the eastern end of the orogenic belt. Previous work suggests significant basement involvement and a kinematic history unique to the Arunachal Himalaya. We present new geologic and geochronologic data to support a regional structural cross section and kinematic restoration of the Arunachal Himalaya. Large Paleoproterozoic orthogneiss bodies (Bomdila Gneiss) previously interpreted as Indian basement have ages of ~1774–1810 Ma, approximately 50 Ma younger than Lesser Himalayan strata into which their granitic protoliths intruded. Bomdila Gneiss is therefore part of the Lesser Himalayan cover sequence, and no evidence exists for basement involvement in the Arunachal Himalaya. Minimum shortening in rocks structurally beneath the STD is ~421 km. The MCT was active during the early Miocene; STD extension overlapped MCT shortening and continued until approximately 15–12 Ma; and growth of the LHD began ~11 Ma, followed by slip along the MBT (post‐7.5 Ma) and MFT (post‐1 Ma) systems. Earlier thrusting events involved long‐distance transport of strong, low‐taper thrust sheets, whereas events after 12–10 Ma stacked smaller, weaker thrust sheets into a steeply tapered orogenic wedge dominated by duplexing. A coeval kinematic transition is observed in other Himalayan regions, suggesting that orogenic wedge behavior was controlled by rock strength and erodibility.


Summary form only given. The author recalls his early exposures to nonlinearity and chaotic systems. He soon realized that very little was known or understood about nonlinearity in general. It also came as a bit of a shock to realize that there were no generalised mathematical tools or methodologies to help. In order to illustrate the importance of this topic and the potential for error, and exploitation, he draws upon a (near) lifetimes engineering and scientific experience. To illustrate specific points of importance his presentationis supported with animations, models and video clips designed to help convey the vast scope and potential riches on offer if we can conquer this fundamental bastion of complexity. The selected examples will span engineering, science, management and politics to drive home the potential rewards and, sometimes, frightening consequences of getting it wrong.


INTRODUCTION Human stem cell research and its possible connection to human cloning (i.e., somatic cell nuclear transfer) has been the subject of much debate recently. Significant confusion exists, however, in the public discourse on this topic--about what an embryo is, as well as about the ethical, religious, and legal issues involved. The aim of this essay is to clarify these issues and lay out as impartially as possible some of the ethical, religious, and scientific questions surrounding these complex matters, in the hope of stimulating and facilitating informed public debate. Professor A.V. Hill in 1923, a future Nobel laureate, in an address to the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, urged scientists to take a broad view. (1) He said: The chief trouble I see with Science is that it is often not philosophical enough; so many of its apostles cultivate some little corner of it so intensively that they never find time or inclination to go up to the top of the neighboring hill in order to see their own little patch in its proper proportions, and to enjoy the romance of the larger landscape. (2) I hope to outline in this essay some of this broader landscape--the ethical, scientific, religious, and public policy issues within which we need to think about human stem cell research. DEFINITIONS Gametes--that is, ova and spermatozoa--carry one half of the genetic material, i.e., the DNA, of the female and male putative parents. When a spermatozoon enters an ovum and its DNA is introduced into the nucleus of the ovum, this DNA pairs up with the corresponding DNA already in the nucleus of the ovum, reconstituting its total genetic material in forty-six chromosomes. A fertilized ovum or zygote is thus formed. This can occur in the female genital tract (usually in the fallopian tube) as part of normal sexual reproduction, or in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the case of assisted fertility. In both instances the zygote starts to divide if conditions are favorable; first to form a blastomere of eight, then sixteen cells, and ultimately to form around day five a blastocyst. The blastocyst consists of 120 to 150 cells, some of which are the stem cells that can develop into all forms of normal human tissue. These are called totipotent. It is important to remember that at this stage the blastocyst, which is an early embryo, can divide into two or more living entities that can then develop into normal embryos. Thus, blastocysts are not individuals or unique entities. They are twinnable. At fourteen days of development, a structure known as the primitive streak appears. This represents the primitive central nervous system. From this point on, the embryo is a unique individual and is no longer twinnable. As I shall discuss later, some authorities regard this developmental stage as critical in their thinking about when human, as contrasted to simply biological, life begins. Finally, I wish to define the process of cloning. Based on the work of Ian Wilmut in producing Dolly the sheep, (3) this process involves removing the nucleus of an ovum and replacing it with the nucleus of an adult cell taken from the egg donor or another adult. This is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This is a difficult task attended by a high failure rate. It took over 250 tries to get Dolly. (4) Using a fetal or embryonic cell as a nuclear donor is an easier way to achieve cloning. Such cloned cells are then induced to divide and develop into embryos. SOURCES OF STEM CELLS Totipotent stem cells can be obtained from blastocysts or other forms of early embryos. These are considered the most likely to be able to be grown into any organ of the human body or to be used for cell transplantation to help injured human tissues recover from injury. Germ line cells from early fetuses, derived from terminated pregnancies, are almost as useful as embryonic stem cells. …


Based on the pretreatment including acidification, purification and sodium ion exchange, the crude sepiolite was modified by microwave radiation-wet process and CTAB as modifier. The orthogonal experiment was used to optimize the modification process. Then the crude sepiolite and modified sepiolite were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, TG-DSC and BET. The results showed that the optimum modification process parameters included CTAB dosage (1.0 cation exchange capacity (CEC)), microwave radiation time (4 minutes), ethanol concentration (50%/V:V) and radiation power (800W). Compared with crude sepiolite, oil removal rate from steel rolling wastewater increased from 41.34% to 96.78% with modified sepiolite prepared at the best process. Characteristic peaks of organic functional groups, enlarged interlayer distance (0.007nm larger than crude sepiolite), enhanced hydrophobicity, amplified specific surface area (104.4m2/g) and mesopore volume had been received from above characterization methods after modification. All of the above had proved that CTAB was successfully grafted onto sepiolite.


The rising concern about plastic waste disposal problems and the need for more versatile polymer-based materials has led to an increasing interest on blending synthetic polymer with degradable materials. In this present study, low density polyethylene (LDPE) and plasticised sago starch or so-called thermoplastic sago starch (TPSS) blends containing different percentage of kenaf core fibres (KCF) were prepared. The effects of different fibre loading (10–40% by weight) on the processing and mechanical properties were investigated. In order to further justify the obtained properties, the fabricated composites were characterised by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and water uptake behaviour. In this work, the blend ratio of LDPE/TPSS was fixed at 90/10 (weight percentage) respectively. The results showed that the incorporation of KCF into the blend caused a considerable improvement in tensile strength and Young's modulus. Optimum strength was obtained at 6.704 MPa. FTIR analysis revealed slight changes in band position and intensities due to hydrogen bond formation occurring after the inclusion of fibre. Whereas, decomposition temperature (Td) was improved because of higher thermal stability of fibres and DSC results illustrated the phase compatibility between components in the composite system. Moreover, water uptake tended to increase as the hydrophilic character of KCF impart to the composites.


Two fuel utilizers, a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a Hormodendrum sp., and two fuel isolates which did not use fuel, Staphylococcus and Bacillus spp., were tested for ability to survive and grow in systems containing emulsified or nonemulsified forms of JP-4 jet fuel. Neither emulsion (Alamac no. 1 or Alamac no. 2) supported microbial growth without a water phase. Growth of P. aeruginosa in liquid systems containing either emulsion was not significantly different from growth in liquid systems with nonemulsified fuel. The Hormodendrum sp. grew well in a liquid medium containing nonemulsified JP-4, but when either of the emulsions served as carbon source no growth was observed. However, good growth was noted on spread plates with either emulsion. Viable cells of Bacillus sp. did not increase over a 4-day period, and Staphylococcus sp. did not survive in liquid systems containing JP-4 or emulsions.


The effect of freezing and bacterial growth on the discoloration of beef was assessed by measuring myoglobin derivatives myoglobin (MB), oxymyoglobin (MBO(2)), and metmyoglobin (METMB) on the surfaces of fresh and frozen-thawed packaged beef cuts stored at 2 degrees C and analyzed after 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 days of storage. MB, MBO(2), and METMB concentrations were measured spectrophotometrically. Frozen-thawed beef samples experienced less "blooming" (conversion of MB to MBO(2)) and more rapid discoloration than fresh cuts during storage. By day 3, >20% METMB was formed in the frozen-thawed samples, whereas the fresh samples reached this value after day 6 of storage. The rates of MB oxidation were similar (P > 0.05) for sterile and frozen-thawed inoculated (Pseudomonas fluorescens at a rate of 1.5 colony forming units/cm(2).cm(2) area) samples from day 0 through day 6 of storage. For storage periods of less than a week, bacterial growth is not a major cause of meat discoloration. After day 6, the high bacterial growth rate resulted in a rapid increase in METMB formation. Possible mechanisms for MB oxidation in frozen-thawed beef are suggested.


Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a key regulator of tumor cell hypoxia. It regulates the expression of several genes related to oxygen homeostasis in response to hypoxic stress. Carbonic anhydrase IX (Ca-IX) has been found to be a stable marker of acute or chronic hypoxia. N-Myc down-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) has been shown to possess more specific characteristics for clinical analysis and identification purposes. HIF-1 activates gene expression of the two genes and promotes tumor cell survival under hypoxic conditions. Herein, we modified a flow cytometry protocol to separate NDRG1- and CA-IX-negative and -positive cells in vitro to sort chronically hypoxic cells from glioblastoma tumors. The FITC-anti-CA-IX fluorescence differed between positive and negative cells by a factor of 60-160 in U373, U87-MG, U251 and GaMG, respectively. A clear effect of the O2 concentration on CA-IX expression was visible in GaMG and U251 cell lines whereas U373 showed a less differentiated pattern. NDRG1 expression was present in U373, U251 and GaMG with the lowest expression rate in GaMG. It was stable over 48 h of reoxygenation after 24 h of extreme hypoxia (0.1% O2). During reoxygenation NDRG1 was relatively stable in the four tumor cell lines with the lowest expression in GaMG. An oxygen- and time-dependent elevation of nuclear HIF-1alpha binding on HRE was displayed. FACS analysis of CA-IX and NDRG1 expression may be a new approach to determining the hypoxic state of tumor cells. However, an extensive analysis of other hypoxia-regulated genes in different tumors is required to identify additional markers for the detection of the oxygenation state in human tumors in order to tailor effective tumor-specific therapeutic strategies.


The performance of various low-level motion estimation methods applied to fluorescence labelled growing cellular structures imaged using confocal laser scanning microscopy is investigated. This is a challenging and unusual domain for motion estimation methods. A selection of methods are discussed that can be contrasted in terms of how much spatial or temporal contextual information is used. The Lucas Kanade feature tracker, a spatially and temporally localised method, was, as one would expect, accurate around resolvable structure. It was not able to track the smaller, repetitive cell structure in the root tip and was somewhat prone to identifying spurious features. This approach is improved by developing a full multi-frame, robust, Bayesian method, and it is demonstrated that by using extra frames with motion constraints reduces such errors. Next, spatially global methods are discussed, including robust variational smoothing and Markov Random Field (MRF) modelling. A key conclusion that is drawn from investigation of these methods is that generic low-level (robust) smoothing functions do not provide good results in this application and that this is probably due to the large regions with little stable structure. Furthermore, contrary to recently reported successes, graph cuts and loopy belief propagation for MAP estimation of the MRF labels provided often poor and inconsistent estimates. The results suggest the need for greater emphasis on temporal smoothing for generic low-level motion estimation tools and more task specific, spatial constraints, perhaps in the form of high level models in order to accurately recover motion from such data. Finally, the form of the estimated growth is briefly discussed and related to contemporary biological models. We hope that this paper will assist non-specialists in applying state-of-the-art methods to this form of data.